In our earlier international application PCT/SG01/00040 (“our earlier application”) there is shown and described a combined keyboard having a fully functional alphanumeric keyboard and a fully functional keyboard for a musical instrument, the musical keyboard preferably being a MIDI keyboard. The contents of our earlier application are hereby incorporated by reference.
The number of selections available by pressing any key on a alphanumeric keyboard is limited, as there are only 104 keys on the keyboard. It is possible to use another key such as CTRL or ALT together so that the keyboard can handle more selections. However, when speed is of essence, it is sometimes not possible to press CTRL followed by any other key.
For someone who uses a alphanumeric keyboard frequently, such as during music making, a convenient and fast method for interaction to provide a speedy operation is required.
A trill happens when two music notes, normally adjacent notes, are played alternately at high speed, producing a vibrating effect on the sound. This effect is very difficult to reproduce, as it requires speed of playing on the one or two notes.
Some MIDI keyboards implement this feature by adapting every key on the MIDI keyboard to play trills after a particular, designated function button is activated. However, this is often not intended in music playing. A user may only want certain selected keys to play trills, and only for selected notes during the performance. This presently requires the particular function key to be activated for each note, and deactivated immediately afterwards. No other note can be played at the same time.